{"id":2892,"date":"2013-10-30T17:45:56","date_gmt":"2013-10-30T21:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/?p=2892"},"modified":"2013-10-30T17:45:56","modified_gmt":"2013-10-30T21:45:56","slug":"inside-pr-3-52-buffering-an-online-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/2013\/10\/30\/inside-pr-3-52-buffering-an-online-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside PR 3.52: Buffering an online crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"powerpress_player\" id=\"powerpress_player_4949\"><audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-2892-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/prworks\/IPR_352_FINAL.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/prworks\/IPR_352_FINAL.mp3\">http:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/prworks\/IPR_352_FINAL.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div><p class=\"powerpress_links powerpress_subscribe_links\">Subscribe: <a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/ca\/podcast\/inside-pr\/id137886027?mt=2&amp;ls=1#episodeGuid=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.insidepr.ca%2F%3Fp%3D2892\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_itunes\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe on Apple Podcasts\" rel=\"nofollow\">Apple Podcasts<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/feed\/podcast\/\" class=\"powerpress_link_subscribe powerpress_link_subscribe_rss\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Subscribe via RSS\" rel=\"nofollow\">RSS<\/a><\/p><p>What would you do if you discovered your site had been hacked and your community&#8217;s data had been compromised? Would you hide and hope the situation would quietly fade away? Let users find out about the issues themselves on social networks? Or proactively inform your users?<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s hard to believe how many organizations might opt for \u2013 or at least consider \u2013 the first two options.<\/p>\n<p>With the speed of social media, we all know how quickly issues can turn into full-blown crises if not dealt with immediately and honestly.<\/p>\n<p>And social media platform Buffer chose the proactive approach to deal with the crisis they faced on the weekend when they found a\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/open.bufferapp.com\/buffer-has-been-hacked-here-is-whats-going-on\/\" target=\"_blank\">security breach<\/a>\u00a0on the site.<\/p>\n<p>This week, we discuss some of the things Buffer did to fix the situation and restore their customer\u2019s trust and the company&#8217;s reputation. Their approach is almost a case study in best practices in crisis communications 2.0<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a recap of their actions:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8211; Buffer apologized and took responsibility early and often. They assumed a leadership role.<br \/>\n&#8211; They didn\u2019t make excuses.<br \/>\n&#8211; They informed people about the situation with regular emails and posts.<br \/>\n&#8211; They spoke candidly about what happened, what they\u2019re doing to correct things and what users needed to do.<br \/>\n&#8211; The communicated back to customers often, issuing ongoing updates and status alerts and using email, their blog, Facebook and Twitter.<br \/>\n&#8211; They were transparent.<br \/>\n&#8211; When things were fixed, they provided instructions about what to do to get reconnected.<br \/>\n&#8211; They continued to issue genuine apologies.<br \/>\n&#8211; They were focused, well organized and first and foremost paid attention to the needs of their users.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>From many of the comments on their blog, it seems as if customers appreciated their honesty and straightforward approach.<\/p>\n<p>What do you think? Are you a Buffer user? How do you think they handled the crisis? Would you have anything else to suggest?<\/p>\n<p>********************************************************************<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;d love to hear your thoughts.<\/p>\n<p>Send us an email or an audio comment to\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:insideprcomments@gmail.com\">insideprcomments@gmail.com<\/a>, join the\u00a0<a title=\"Inside PR Community on Google+\" href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/u\/0\/communities\/107220947721041165633\" target=\"_blank\">Inside PR Google+ Community<\/a>, join the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/group.php?gid=101489863251163\" target=\"_blank\">Inside PR Facebook<\/a>\u00a0group, leave us a comment here, message us\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/inside_pr\">@inside_pr<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter, or connect with\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/ginidietrich\" target=\"_blank\">Gini Dietrich<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/thornley\" target=\"_blank\">Joseph Thornley<\/a>, and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/martinwaxman\">Martin Waxman<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter.<\/p>\n<p>Our theme music was created by\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.fortheloveofrecords.com\/\">Damon de Szegheo<\/a>;\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.rogerdey.com\/\">Roger Dey<\/a>\u00a0is our announcer.<\/p>\n<p>Inside PR is produced by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/KristineDarbell\" target=\"_blank\">Kristine D&#8217;Arbelles<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a title=\"Ashlea LeCompte on Twitter\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/ashlealecompte\">Ashlea LeCompte<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What would you do if you discovered your site had been hacked and your community&#8217;s data had been compromised? Would you hide and hope the situation would quietly fade away? Let users find out about &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[783,168,387,950,605,149,27,946,952],"class_list":["post-2892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pr","tag-buffer","tag-crisis-communications","tag-gini-dietrich","tag-inside-pr","tag-issues-management","tag-joe-thornley","tag-martin-waxman","tag-pr","tag-social-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2892\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insidepr.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}